Two Spanish trade unions representing cabin crew at Ryanair have voted to hold six days of strike action later this month in a move that could disrupt the travel plans of many passengers.
Spanish-based staff represented by the USO and SITCPLA unions will walk out for two three-day strikes from June 24th to June 26th, and from June 30th to July 2nd.
Describing the announcements as “a distraction”, Ryanair claimed that most crew would not support the planned industrial action and that it would have little impact on its schedule.
“Ryanair has negotiated collective agreements covering 90 per cent of our people across Europe,” a Ryanair spokesperson said in a statement. “In recent months we have been negotiating improvements to those agreements as we work through the Covid recovery phase. Those negotiations are going well, and we do not expect widespread disruption this summer.”
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The spokesman added: “In Spain we are pleased to have reached a collective agreement with CCOO, Spain’s largest and most representative union, delivering improvements for Spanish-based cabin crew and reinforcing Ryanair’s commitment to the welfare of its cabin crew. Recent announcements by the much smaller USO and SITCPLA unions are a distraction from their own failures to deliver agreements after three years of negotiations, and we believe that their strike calls will not be supported by our Spanish crews.”
So far the airline, Europe’s biggest by passenger numbers, has escaped much of the turmoil affecting its rivals, particularly EasyJet in the UK, and said it has not cancelled any flights because of its own staffing issues. However, the Spanish unions now appear to be fixed on action, largely to pursue increases to basic salaries after cuts during the pandemic.
The general secretary of USO’s Ryanair section, Lidia Arasanz, said: “We have to resume mobilisation so that the reality of our situation is known and Ryanair is forced to abide by basic labour laws.”
The unions, speaking in Madrid, said they would look to co-ordinate action with other unions representing Ryanair staff in Belgium, France, Italy and Portugal, according to Bloomberg.
Despite its assurances Ryanair has previously been forced to cancel hundreds of flights through industrial action by its staff, with the two years before the pandemic marked by disruptive walkouts, including UK pilot strikes in 2019 that followed crew walkouts across Europe in 2018.
The airline operates out of more than 20 airports, including nine bases, in Spain, with more than 70 domestic routes as well as the large international tourist trade. – Additional reporting by The Guardian
